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ASX Tech Stocks: Swoop snaps up dark fibre network Luminet in its latest M&A play
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Australian telco, Swoop is staying on the M&A trail, today announcing its acquisition of dark fibre provider, Luminet.
The reported $8 million deal, to be paid in cash and shares, will provide Swoop with 58km of dark fibre in the Sydney CBD and outer metro areas, connecting key data centres and Hyperscale facilities.
Luminet is just the latest in a series of acquisition plays made by Swoop since it was acquired by Stemify and listed on the ASX in May 2021.
In January it acquired South Australian local businesses connectivity provider, iFibre for $1.5 million.
The telco announced in October 2021 that it had raised $41 million via a fully underwritten placement to fund a series of acquisitions, including regional provider Countrytell for $4.2 million, along with a number of fixed wireless, voice, fibre infrastructure and resale providers.
It also launched a $5 million share purchase plan to boost its acquisition coffers.
It acquired Sydney-based wholesale voice services provider Voicehub Group for $6 million in October, Perth-based fixed wireless provider, Community Communications, and Victorian wireless broadband provider Speedweb for $1.75 million in June, and South Australia’s Beam Internet in July for $6.7 million.
Swoop CEO, Alex West says the Luminet’s acquisition is a great “fast track” for its dark fibre investment.
“The 58km network covers many of Sydney’s most important interconnection points, data centres as well as Hyperscale facilities,” he said.
“Like our previous fibre acquisition it is predominantly built in its own ducts, and with significantly larger fibre core counts presenting great opportunities for growth.
“As we saw from Vocus – (the now delisted telco which was founded by Swoop’s Non-Executive Chairman, James Spencley) – we started the fibre journey with roughly the same amount of cable on some of the same key routes that saw us grow into one of the largest fibre infrastructure providers in Australia,” West added.
“We are excited to bring together this asset along with one of Australia’s largest fixed wireless networks to continue to offer great solutions to our growing customer base.”
Swoop Chairman, James Spenceley said Vocus had tried to acquire Luminet several times during his former tenure as CEO, as its network has “both unique and independent duct access between many of Sydney major data centres coupled with one of the highest core counts connecting those data centres”.
“Sydney dark fibre is in high demand and is an important product in the market and the Swoop team is very excited to be entering this market again,” Spencely said.
